Sublimation printing techniques have been employed in the decoration of cloth or fabrics and involve the printing of a design on a paper backing sheet by conventional printing techniques employing sublimation inks, and then transferring such design under heat and pressure to the cloth or fabric. The decorating of 100% polyester fabrics and garments, such as 100% polyester T-shirts, employing such techniques has enjoyed overwhelming success. The sublimation inks, although somewhat dull and off-colored when printed on the paper backing sheet, have been found to produce brilliant colors and clear designs when transferred under heat and pressure to such 100% polyester fabrics or garments.
When it has been attempted to transfer designs comprising sublimation inks to 100% cotton fabrics or fabrics formed of cotton-polyester combinations, it has been found that the sublimation designs on such fabrics are distorted and the colors thereof are faded. It is theorized that the difficulties encountered in attempting to decorate fabrics containing cotton is attributed to the high porosity of cotton which causes the cotton to absorb unduly large amounts of the sublimation dyes.
Various techniques have been suggested in an effort to overcome the problems associated with the decoration of fabrics containing cotton. One technique involves the impregnation of such fabrics with an aqueous solution of an emulsion polymer, and drying the so-impregnated fabric and then transferring a sublimation ink design layer from a paper backing, under heat and pressure, to the so-impregnated fabric. Another technique attempted involves the spray coating of the fabric with a diluted emulsion polymer and thereafter transferring a sublimation ink design layer from a paper backing, under heat and pressure, to the dried, so-spray-coated fabric.
Unfortunately, it has been found that the above techniques have, for the most part, been unsatisfactory in that the colors of the transferred design become faded after relatively short periods of time, probably due to migration of the sublimation inks into the cotton portion of the fabric. Furthermore, these prior art techniques require at least two separate steps in effecting the design transfer to the fabric, namely, application of the emulsion polymer to the fabric in a first step, and transferring the sublimation design to the treated fabric in a second step. The requirement of these two separate steps, especially the application of the emulsion polymer to the fabric, makes it practically mandatory that the fabrics be decorated by professionals in a commercial facility so that the emulsion polymer can be applied in the necessary amount and consistency. Moreover, the more attractive marketing approach would be to have the consumer or layman separately purchase the fabric or garment, and the sublimation transfer, and decorate the fabric or garment at home employing a conventional iron as a source of the required heat and pressure to effect the transfer.